Entoto TVET College

Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

ENTOTO TVET COLLEGE

Under

Ethiopian TVET-System

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORT SERVICE
Level IV

LEARNING GUIDE

Unit of Competence: DEVELOP TEAMS AND

INDIVIDUALS
Module Title: DEVELOP TEAMS AND
INDIVIDUALS
LG Code: ICT HNS4 08 1110
TTLM Code: ICT HNS4 TTLM 0511

LO 4: Develop team commitment

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 1 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

INTRODUCTION Learning Guide

Team Commitment — Presentation Transcript

1. Team Commitment What does it look like? The New Fieldbook for Training
Jones/Bearley/Watsabaugh HRD Press
2. Team Commitment from Agreement to Commitment: “I’ll go “I’ll do along with what it that.”
takes...”Agreement without commitment is dysfunctional.
3. What Commitment Looks Like: • Staking your reputation on the planned action • No lingering
doubts • No looking back • No contrary thoughts
4. What Commitment Looks Like: • Expectation of winning • Nothing gets left undone • Passionate
protection of outcomes • Intensive loyalty.
5. Where to start • There are no shortcuts - It begins with participation and requires an attitude shift.
• Behavior change precedes attitude change. • Communicating: The “what” goes down - the
“how” comes up.
6. Where to start• Establishing Measures: What gets measured gets done.• Commitment to Vision:
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp. (Matthew Arnold)
7. Contact Us For more information about WCW Partners’ team development consulting support
and resources contact WCW Partners 14806 102nd Street Circle N. About WCW Partners
Stillwater, Minnesota Watsabaugh Conlow Worldwide is a 55082 performance improvement
company. Phone: 1-888-313-0514 Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we work Learn more with
clients in a variety of industries worldwide to help them excel in sales, service Visit us online at:
and leadership. www.wcwpartners.com Get the Complete Check us out on: Team Commitment
package purchase the new trainer’s fieldbook hereCopyright © 1996 Organizational Universe
Systems P.O. Box 38 Valley Center CA 92082 © 2008 Watsabaugh Conlow Worldwide

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 2 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Information Sheet 1 Develop team commitment

What is teamwork?

Teamwork is defined as "a joint action by a group of people, in which each person
subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the
group." This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean
that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most
effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions
and work towards a common goal.

Why we Interest in Teamwork?

The most important element of team work is share dinformation. Teamwork has become
an important part of the working culture and many businesses now look at teamwork skills
when evaluating a person for employment. Most companies realize that teamwork is important
because either the product is sufficiently complex that it requires a team with multiple skills to
produce, and/or a better product will result when a team approach is taken. Therefore, it is
important that work in a team environment.

Teamwork is rewarded and recognized. The lone ranger, even if she is an excellent
producer, is valued less than the person who achieves results with others in teamwork.
Compensation, bonuses, and rewards depend on collaborative practices as much as individual
contribution and achievement

What is a team role?

A tendency to perform, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way. Team role
shows the different types of contribution that is make to the team.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 3 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Team role: team roles describe your "soft product" contribution to team discussions and
interactions. For example, when a team meets to resolve a team problem, each team member
contributes a different type of perspective to the discussion, and tries to achieve a different
effect. One person may want to clarify the problem being discussed; another may suggest ideas
for resolution; a third may try to analyse the situation and produce an explanation of how the
problem came about.

When a team is performing at its best, you'll usually find that each team member has clear
responsibilities. You'll also see that every role needed to achieve the team's goal is being
performed fully and well.

Teams can become unbalanced if all team members have similar styles of behavior or team roles.
If team members have similar weakness, the team as a whole may tend to have that weakness. If
team members have similar team-work strengths, they may tend to compete (rather than co-
operate) for the team tasks and responsibilities that best suit their natural styles.

Team

A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or
project. Team members (1) operate with a high degree of interdependence, (2) share authority
and responsibility for self-management, (3) is accountable for the collective performance, and (4)
work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s). A team becomes more than just a collection
of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating
performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

Teamwork goals, vision and mission

Teamwork is work performed by a team towards a common goal. In a business setting

accounting techniques may be used to provide financial measures of the benefits of teamwork
which are useful for justifying the concept.

Teamwork goal: A job description need not be limited to explaining the current situation, or
work that is currently expected; it may also set out goals for what might be achieved in future.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 4 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Steps to team work comunication

1. Define the team task

The first order of business is to agree on the group's goal.  This will sometimes be a fully
developed statement of the team's charge, but it can also be a simple sentence that defines the
project

 Do I need to revise my position description/profile?

 Do I need to have a role clarification discussion with my boss?
 Do I need to have a role clarification discussion with some or all team members?
 Should this issue be discussed at our next team meeting?

2. Define the membership

Being part of a productive team is not a matter of luck. Productive teams are created by
members who have the skills to make them productive.

It is crucial that everyone on the team knows who else is ON the team, what their areas of
expertise or responsibility are, and how to contact them.

Be sure to attend the first meeting of any new team, and find out who is on the team.  Learn
each person's name, department and email. Generally, the first document created by a team will
be its roster, a list of members with their contact information

3. Determine Primary Roles

If the team has been formed in order to accomplish a task, the reason for each person's
membership will define that person's primary role in the group.  The IT specialist will be in
charge of IT aspects of the task, for instance, while the representative from Human Resources
will bring job analysis expertise to the group.  When a group has self-organized to accomplish a

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 5 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

task, an important step is to decide what resources are needed to accomplish the task and decide
how the team members will divide up those primary roles.

4.  Developing Team Cohesion

A sense of team identity and cohesiveness among team members is a key factor in group
satisfaction and productivity.  Any team will be more productive when it spends at least a short
period of time getting acquainted before jumping into its task.  In a large, formal team situation,
a well-run kick off meeting is an excellent forum to meet each other and begin to develop a
sense of common goals and team. Even if your team is a short-term, informal group, spend
some time communicating with each other in a “social” way to get acquainted with each others’
goals, talents, and personalities. : Get Acquainted as Peopl

Commitment
We all want commitment, but what are we doing about it?

Have you ever heard people complaining about a lack of commitment? We all want
commitment, from someone else. The project team wants upper management commitment.
Management wants team commitment. The question is, what are they doing to get it? Are we
expecting commitment to be automatic?

There are three key elements needed to get commitment:

Understanding
Agreement
Personal interest

Let look at each of these. Understanding is where it all starts. If we don't understand what is
expected, it is impossible to be committed. The problem is, people don't always like to admit it
when they don't understand. That's why it is good ask for examples, fill in details, and dig deeper
to determine the level of understanding. The opposite of understanding is assumption. We
assume the client, management and the project team wants something, but we don't check it out.
Getting everyone to understand sounds easy, but it is not and it takes time.

Agreement leads to action. Don't confuse silence for agreement. If you assume agreement
when it is not there, you will eventually have to deal with the truth. Agreement is hard to get. It
may be tentative in the beginning and may take time to develop, especially if we are dealing with
something new. Understanding is objective and easy to test. Agreement is more subjective. You
cannot force it. You have to encourage, support and let it grow.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 6 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

If you want true commitment, ask yourself if you are willing to invest the time and effort to
develop understanding and agreement. If not, you are setting yourself up for phony commitment
and failure when things get difficult.

Personal interest is the third element and it has tremendous power. It adds the passion for
actually making things happen. We call this personal interest. This does not mean being selfish.
You may have heard of “What’s In It for me” (WIIFM)? Many people think that without a
WIIFM, there cannot be full commitment. Personal interest goes beyond this. It is what gets you
up in the morning and gets you moving. For each of us it could be a different thing. Personal
interest leading to commitment is far more complex than just offering a cash bonus. Yes, there
are some people who will work hard for more money, but others may be completely unmotivated
by it. Find out what people really want.

The Three types of team commitment Circles

Commitment is critically important to team success. Of course there are other factors for success (like
relationships, clear goals and more), but commitment is one that often is overlooked. More specifically,
teams need three forms of commitment to be most successful:

1. Commitment to each other and each other's success. Teams that are comprised of individuals
that actively support believe in and care about the success of each other will be more successful.
This type of commitment promotes the comfortable shifting of duties and responsibilities among
team members as necessary and allows teams to have less stress and higher productivity.

2. Commitment to their team and the team's success. Team pride and commitment is important
to ultimate success. The commitment that arises from a team that understands their role and
relishes achieving it is hard to undervalue. Teams with this type of commitment will overcome
long odds due to their strength and unity and willingness to band together to get through a tough
situation. Why? Because they see the effort as worth it for the good of the team.

3. Commitment to the organization and organizational goals. When teams see their work as
supporting valuable and important organizational pursuits, this type of commitment is
strengthened. This can't be built without a clear understanding of company direction and goals,
but with those in place this commitment can grow. Like the internal team commitment, this
manifests in organizational pride and a clear sense of obligation to the greater good.

Thinking about each of these separately as a team leader or a team member will help you determine
where gaps might be. Hopefully your team has high marks in each area. If not, this list gives you a place
to start in building higher levels of commitment in the areas that might be lacking.

Potential Pointer: The important team commitments include commitment to the organization, the
team and each other. The stronger and more balanced these commitments are, the more successful and
productive any team will be.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 7 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Team Commitment
Effective teams have:
Commitment to the team's plans
Commitment to the team's goals
Set team goals
An understanding of how the team's plans relate to the organisation's objectives
Commitment to the Team's Plans:
The team's plans outline how the team will achieve its objectives by detailing:
What the goals are?
How the goals will be achieved
The performance required
The deadlines and milestones
Committing to the team plans gives the team a strong focus on succeeding and highlights the
steps necessary to succeed. When team members understand their work in the context of the
team's plan they become more committed to team success and less troubled by any short term
difficulties.

Commitment to the team plan is created when:

 Team members understand what they are expected to do, the standard to which they are
expected to work, the deadlines they are expected to meet and how their work impacts the
rest of the team
 Team members have input into the plans
 The plans are communicated at the outset and reiterated regularly
 Team members minimize activities which do not contribute to the success of the team

Commitment to the Team's Goals:

Commitment to a common goal is one of the cornerstones of teamwork. It occurs when
each member of the team focuses on achieving the team's purpose over and above their
individual objectives.

 Commitment to team goals is created when:

o All team members contribute to and agree on objectives

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 8 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

o Team goals, and the way in which their achievement will be measured, are
determined, documented and communicated at the outset and reiterated frequently
o Any changes to team goals are communicated immediately
o Team members ensure that their own work is aligned with team goals and quality
standards
o Team members place the success of the team above their own personal success
o Team members appreciate the significance of routine or mundane tasks to the
success of the project and perform them willingly

How to Build Commitment in Teams?

Commitment is one of the key factors contributing to team success. What teams achieve
depends on the ability of the leader to build commitment. So how can you build commitment in
teams?

1. Provide clarity on outcomes

If you want teams to achieve success you, as the leader, need to provide clarity on the outcomes
that the team is to achieve in a way that creates buy in. If you are vague on the outcomes you
want, it will be difficult and potentially impossible to get people on board.

2. Recognise achievements and progress

Everyone likes to be appreciated. Make a point of recognising the achievements of the team and
individuals on the team on a regular basis. There will be times when things are not achieved and
in these circumstances it is important to recognise the progress that has been made.

3. Allow people to make mistakes

We are all human and make mistakes from time to time. To gain commitment from your team
you need to be willing to let people take balanced risks and make mistakes. When mistakes are
made, it is important to encourage people to reflect and learn from the mistakes.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 9 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

4. Show you can be relied on

Team members need to know that they can rely on you to support them and remove obstacles
that get in their way. As a leader you need to keep demonstrating that you can be relied on and
team members will be much more willing to stay committed.

5. Learn to listen

You are likely to have many ideas of your own and it is important that you do not just impose
them. As a leader you need to become an expert listener so that you get the benefit and
commitment of team members.

6. Be adaptable

One of the real benefits of a team is the range of ideas that they generate. As the leader you need
to be adaptable and help find the best solution from the all of the options available to you.

At the end of the day, building commitment takes time, effort and energy. If you want your
teams to deliver the best possible results, focus on building commitment.

Duncan Broody of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with individuals, teams and
organizations to develop their management and leadership capability.

With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands firsthand the real
challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 10 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College
Entoto TVET College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Self-Check 1 Written Test

Name:_________________________________ Date:_________________

Instruction: Answer all the questions listed below, if you have some difficulty doing this
self check, feels free to ask your teacher for clarifications.
1. A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task,
job, or project. Team members.
2. List three key elements needed to get commitment.
3. List three types of team commitment Circles
4. What the goals are?
5. How to Build Commitment in Teams

You must able to get 8points to be competent otherwise you’ll take another test

Learning Guide Date: 05-2011 Page 11 of

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First Edition Author: Mule , IT – Entoto TVET College